Inventory of the Lepidoptera Larvae, their Parasitoids, and their Gut Microbes of a Costa Rican Tropical Dry Forest, Cloud Forest, and Rainforest

该项目将对生活在哥斯达黎加西北部瓜纳卡斯特保护区110 000公顷热带干旱森林及其毗邻雨林和云雾林中的所有大型毛虫物种进行清查。 研究的重点将是毛毛虫种类及其相关的成虫生命形式的识别和分类、它们与食用植物的关系、它们的寄生虫种类（寄蝇、寄生蜂、线虫、昆虫病原真菌）、它们的肠道微生物群，以及建立与种类和采集地点有关的图像和数据的在线数据库。 该项目旨在发现、饲养、拍摄和描述至少另外1000种目前未知的大型毛虫（鳞翅目，不包括潜叶虫）的毛虫，以产生该地区已知但未发现的约3,000种物种。 此外，该项目将维护和扩大毛毛虫和寄生虫凭证材料的收集，通过网络和传统方法发布识别键、物种描述和自然历史信息。 该项目是由环境生物学司和国际方案司共同赞助的一个长期大规模清单。

This project will inventory all species of macrocaterpillars living in the 110,000 ha of tropical dry forest and its contiguous rain forest and cloud forest in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica. Research will be focused on identification and classification of caterpillar speciesand their associated adult life forms, their food plant relationships, their species of parasitoids (tachinid flies, parasitic wasps, nematodes, entomopathogenic fungi), their gut microbiota, and the creation of on-line databanks of images and data associated with species and collecting localities. The project is designed to discover, rear, photograph, and characterize caterpillars of at least another 1000 species of currently unknown macrocaterpillars (Lepidoptera exclusive of leaf miners) to yield approximately 3,000 species known and yet undiscovered for the region. In addition, the project will maintain and enlarge the collection of caterpillar and parasitoid voucher material, publish by web-based and traditional methods identification keys, species descriptions, and natural history information. This project is designed as a Long-term Large-scale Inventory and is jointly sponsored by the Division of Environmental Biology and the Division of International Programs.